Mayor Anthony Silva has promised he will make the following donations totalling $18,000 to area charities. The donations are to come out of his salary for Jan. 1 through June 30, which he is now re...

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Donations

Mayor Anthony Silva has promised he will make the following donations totalling $18,000 to area charities. The donations are to come out of his salary for Jan. 1 through June 30, which he is now requesting. He said the donations will be awarded June 30.

$500 level

• American Legion Karl Ross Post Fourth of July Veterans Parade

• American Red Cross

• Fathers and Families

• Helping Other People Expand

• Oak Park Senior Center (Parks and Recreation Foundation)

• Pixie Woods Foundation

• Pups Rescue Animal Services

• Silver Lake Campers Association

• Stockton Shelter for the Homeless

• Stockton Youth Soccer Association

• Walton School for Disabled Children

$2,500 level

• Mayor's Gun Buyback Program (Stockton Police Foundation)

$10,000 level

• Stockton Boys and Girls Clubs (Silva is president and CEO).

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STOCKTON - Mayor Anthony Silva announced Tuesday that he will begin taking his salary as mayor in a move that includes collecting back pay he has skipped since taking office in January.

Silva defended the move, pledging to donate a large portion of the back pay - $18,000 - to a long list of local charities, including $10,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Stockton, where he is the president and CEO.

Silva has been in one battle after the other since taking office, such as a recent controversy over opening a city-owned swimming pool. Silva said in an interview that he expects a political fallout over his decision to take a salary.

"People will bag on me for that, too," he said of the salary in an interview at his room at the University Waterfront Plaza Hotel.

The announcement came amid an ongoing investigation by the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office and a recent attack on his character from an anonymous emailer.

Silva said he has reported the email to the FBI because the attached 2005 confidential police report included his Social Security number and other personal information.

The email message is sure to contain information about who sent it, he said.

"There's always an IP address," he said. "It's going to come back to somebody, somewhere."

Silva pledged not to take a salary as an underdog candidate in a hard-fought race last year against incumbent Mayor Ann Johnston. Silva had declined the $102,000 annual pay and benefits that came with the city's top political office.

As mayor, Johnston was entitled at the end of her term to collect that sum on a recommendation of a city salary setting committee, but she declined the raise, taking a base pay of about $79,000.

In his campaign, Silva had said that he wouldn't take the paycheck until the city balanced its budget and he could put a sufficient number of police officers on the streets to calm violence.

"We still need a lot more cops," he said in Tuesday's interview. "We're working on it."

Silva further rationalized collecting the pay, saying the City Council later this month is expected to pass a balanced budget. The budget will withhold $22 million in debt payments under the protection of Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Silva said in a statement that he was forced to take the pay by the City Attorney's Office, which repeatedly told him that he might be responsible for paying taxes on the salary, despite declining to take it, because it was reportable income.

City spokeswoman Connie Cochran declined to comment on Silva's statement. Johnston did not respond to a request for comment on Silva's decision to collect the pay.

Silva also said in the interview that he was not sure if he would continue to take his Boys & Girls Club salary of $100,000 a year. He said that this month he did not take a paycheck from the club because it is the end of the fiscal year, and he is trying to make budget.